DUNCAN FALLS - It will be different when Donald and Janet Staker peer out their kitchen window into their backyard. For 50 years, the couple have always had the same view, a glimpse of their crop fields just through the treeline.

Their sons used to ride four-wheelers out there. Years ago, their donkey, an ornery little fellow, might be roaming around, nipping at the backs of some bulls lounging in the pasture.

But soon, the land that they built their livelihood around will be out of their hands.

The couple recently sold their 11-acre property near Philo High School to Franklin Local Schools, which plans on using the land to expand its vocational agricultural program.

"To sell it was a tough decision," Donald said.

Farming, and that piece of land in particular, have been in his family for nearly a century. Donald's great-grandfather, the first in his family born in the United States, was a sharecropper. His grandfather and father worked as tenant farmers on that specific plot in before Donald's father bought it for his son in the early 1960s. Donald then tended the farm after his father passed away, with his sons and grandson helping him out over the years.

"There's five generations of us that have worked on that property," he said. "And that makes it a little more special."

Sitting at their kitchen table in the house that Donald built almost entirely by himself five decades earlier, the two recalled their decision to part with the land, and the memories it holds.

"This is probably the richest ground there is around," Donald said, hands trembling. For years, he grew corn, hay and soybeans on the land; a portion of the property used to be pasture, where he raised cattle, pigs and chickens.

In recent years, however, Donald's eyesight has deteriorated to the point it is "hard for me to tell the difference between a weed and a tomato plant unless I get close to it," Donald said.

When his drivers' license was revoked, that made it difficult for him to tend to his various properties around the area.

"When he lost his license, that's pretty much when he had to let (farming) go," Janet said.

With his family history in farming, Donald had grown up in the industry. Raised on a farm in Muskingum County, Donald learned how to milk a cow when he was 8 years old, and started driving a tractor at age 10.

"It is very tough, and I can understand why my boys didn't want to stay in it," Donald said, recounting how the farming industry has changed in his lifetime.

The couple had sold a portion of their property before, offering a section to Franklin Local Schools for a new driveway to Philo High School shortly after the school was built. Recently, the school district approached their son, Kenneth, who runs a sawmill neighboring the farm, about selling their properties.

With Donald unable to continue farming, and the person he was renting the farmland to for the past three years unable to continue due to health issues, the couple decided it would be best to sell the land.

"Since it's going to be used for agriculture purposes, we felt a little bit better about selling it," Donald said, who also used to teach at Maysville Elementary School. "I'd rather have that there than a housing development or a shopping center. This keeps the ground back in the agricultural area."

Donald, now 75, has retired from farming, focusing on his wood-crafting hobby as best he can with his eyesight. He often has to use a large magnifying glass to read instructions on materials.

Kenneth will be moving his sawmill closer to his home near The Wilds. The couple's other son, involved in "the internet," Donald said, moved away long ago, though their daughter Stina, a principal with Zanesville City Schools, will be building a new house just down the street from her parents. The farming legacy now lies with their grandson, who raises cattle on a pasture farm across town.

"It's something that, in a way, I'm looking forward to. I'm sure they'll be some opportunities there that these young students will have that they don't have other places in the community," Donald said about the school district's agricultural program. "There's a lot of kids these days that don't know what it's like to stick your finger in the dirt, or raise a calf."